Intelligent People more likely to be godless liberalsFollow

I also said, that even if there WERE people that leaned conservatively in the sciences, they no longer do so as much since their own careers are being dismissed by conservatives as government waste.

I had someone give a clearer explanation as to what I was trying to get at . . . engineers specifically tend to be fairly concrete in their thinking and world views, because they deal with absolutes - i.e. the elevator can only hold so many people, and beyond that the ropes will be too stressed. This lends them to conservative or even libertarian political ideologies, since those are also based more on absolutes (compared to the fuzzy gray areas that liberals are so fond of.)

These people can also be idiot savants. My ex brother in law was a goddamn idiot, and had a reading disability, but something about solid state logic clicked in his brain, and he was thus a very good computer engineer despite have an otherwise average IQ (roundabouts 100ish.)

But actual research scientists, as Joph's study pointed out, lean liberal as a whole.

Forget it. Gbaji's schtick when he's been proven wrong yet again is to start demanding that it doesn't count because you weren't really replying to the right statements. Even if he has to tell you exactly what you were responding to!

He does this all the time. It's pretty funny but not worth making a serious attempt to do anything about it because he'll always insist that he's not really doing it and it's you who are... well, really responding to the statements he says you are. See how that works?

Tomatos are fruits and they're not sweet.

Well... You did respond to Cat's statement, which quoted mine. I also repeated my statement referencing "people working in engineering or science fields" 3 or 4 times. I'm not sure how many more hints and clues you need...

Sounds like you're the one trying to weasel out of being proven wrong. Classic example of projection really.

Wait... since when are citrus fruits bitter? I was thinking sour.
Chocolate is bitter. Acids are sour. Bases are bitter.

No Joph. What is silly is to interject a fact which doesn't disprove my statement at all, and then insisting for two pages that it does.


Lol... And has it occurred to you that the very set of statistics you presented could explain the lack of statistics on the larger and more relevant group? If the vast majority of research scientists lean liberal, as the study shows, then wouldn't they tend to research things that supported their own views rather than those which didn't?

I seem to recall commenting on the fact that Pew (a research group itself) decided to focus on "research scientists" when looking for smart people on which to measure political affiliation. I'm sure it could just be random I suppose. Or it could be reporting bias. Or it could be that folks who have to fill out paperwork to get research grants are easier to obtain statistical information on. Regardless of *why* though, we have only data on a subset. And it happens to be a subset which is statistically anomalous in terms of its liberal slant.


You look at the data and think it must mean that smart people are more likely to be liberal. I look at the same data and think that they didn't sample smart people very well. It's not the data that is in question, but the conclusions we can reasonably draw from it. And your own personal preferences aside, it seems far far more reasonable that we're looking at a sampling issue than some grand statistical difference in terms of intelligence between liberals and conservatives.

Edited, Mar 3rd 2010 7:02pm by gbaji

Apples aren't bitter. They're mostly pretty sweet.

Strawberries and kiwis, though...bitter as hell.

That's sour, not bitter.

Nah. it's really more about intellectual curiosity. I have an interest in how patterns of speech change based on a variety of conditions. One of the more interesting ways to view this is via argument. There are some very observable and repeatable patterns to how people argue.

What I've noticed is that very very few people actually argue by using any form of logic at all. What they do instead is use a variety of "tricks" to attempt to sway people to their position. One of the things I attempt to determine when I argue is whether the person using those tricks is aware of what they're doing, or is just using them because it's a pattern of speaking which they've learned to use in specific situations (like an argument).

A secondary question that's often in the back of my mind is: If someone is knowingly using "tricks" to support their position, then why do they hold the position in the first place?


And I happen to have an interest in politics as well...

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

The ole "I meant to do that!" remark. The last refuge for the failed internet schlep

Like a dagger in my heart.

Ok, not really.

You do know they're not going to let you watch right?

Fuck you.